By Jude Baggo
Imbuleh,ready for serving.
In Hungduan, Ifugao, imbuleh time is one of the exciting activities for children in the small villages (boble). Aside from being a simple activity that gathers the neighborhood children and adults, imbuleh is also a testament to the bountiful harvest from the rice terraces.
Imbuleh is a glutinous rice-based delicacy of Hungduan, Ifugao. Imbuleh is proven to be a good snack to bring when tending to the swidden farms, rice fields or simply going to the mountains for gathering firewood and hunting.
The preparation of imbuleh is quite laborious. Children love to get involved in the process of making imbuleh from the pounding of the glutinous rice to the wrapping of the powdered rice. In our village, when we prepare imbuleh, two to three bundles of glutinous rice are needed to produce 30-40 wrapped imbuleh.
In our mountain areas, there are no mechanized rice mills. The rice is manually pounded using a stone or wooden luhung with the use of a wooden bayu (large mortar and pestle). Before pounding, the rice is put in a container with water to soften (upol). After a minimum of 30 minutes, the glutinous rice softens and is drained from the container and ready to be powdered using the luhung. To ensure a quality ground glutinous rice, a ligau basket is use to separate the refined and unrefined malagkit rice. The refined rice is set aside while the coarse ones are returned to the luhung. The process is repeated until all is refined.
The refined glutinous rice is then put in a basin or pot then mixed with water and sugar. If available, coconut cream or gata is mixed during the preparation. A small pinch of salt is added. One can also include chopped and small bits of camote.
After these preparations, banana leaves are prepared to be used as a wrappers for the imbuleh. The banana leaves are heated above the fire to soften and avoid easy tearing of the leaf. Then the banana leaves are divided to be used. At least 4 tablespoons of mixed glutinous rice is put on a piece of banana leaf then carefully wrapped for cooking. Others use banana strings to tie the imbuleh to avoid unnecessary spills during the cooking.
After an hour, the imbuleh can be served. Imbuleh is best consumed when it is cold.
Pounding rice is fun.
Preparing the banana leaf for wrapping the imbuleh.
Wrapping of the imbuleh.
When cooking is done.